Authoritarian theory describes how all forms of communication are controlled by governing elites or authorities to protect the nation from threats. The media is seen as a tool to enhance the ruler's power rather than challenge them. Authorities have full rights to license and censor media as they see fit. Censorship suppresses information deemed harmful to the people, king, government, or nation, and helps protect rulers from sensitive issues. Different types of censors include political censors who conceal information from citizens, moral censors who remove obscene content, religious censors who suppress unorthodox views, and corporate censors who sanction speech threatening monetary interests.

1. Authoritarian Theory

2. Authoritarian theory describe that all forms of
communications are under the control of the governing elite or
authorities or influential bureaucrats.
Authoritarians are necessary to control the media to protect
and prevent the people from the national threats through any
form communication (information or news). The press is an
instrument to enhance the ruler’s power in the country rather
than any threats. The authorities have all rights to permit any
media and control it by providing license to the media and
make certain censorship.

3. Censorship
Censorship is a suppression of any communication which may consider as
harmful to the people, King, government and its nation. Especially these
censorship methods are much familiar in press which against the freedom of
speech and freedom of expression. In some other cases, the censorship
helps to protect the rulers and authorities from sensitive issues.

4. Types of Censors
Political censor
exists when a government attempts to conceal, fake, distort, or falsify information that its citizens receive by suppressing
or crowding out political news that the public might receive through news outlets.
Moral censor
is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise considered morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is
often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, which is illegal and censored in most jurisdictions in the world.
Religious censor
Religious censorship is defined as the act of suppressing views that are contrary of those of an organized religion. It is
usually performed on the grounds of blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege or impiety - the censored work being viewed as obscene,
challenging a dogma, or violating a religious taboo.
Military censor
Corporate censor
Corporate censorship is censorship by corporations. It is when a spokesperson, employer, or business associate
sanctions a speaker's speech by threat of monetary loss, employment loss, or loss of access to the marketplace. It is present in
many different kinds of industries.

5. 10/1/2019
Examples of Authoritarian theory:

6. 10/1/2019
For right Nikolai Yezhov, standing near Stalin was removed from this photograph after he shot dead in
1940. These types of censors are common during Stalin’s reign.
 Here, Journalist or any media persons should not have any rights to comment, discriminate or
stand against the government. Sometimes, an authority gives considerable freedom to
minority thoughts and cultural issues to promote them if it doesn’t make any threats to
authority or ruler.
 King – King is the authority, who has all rights to control the communication and no one can
question against the king.
 “The French king Louis XIV was concentrated in his person parliamentary, law making and
judicial power. He was the authority of Supreme Court as well as he can condemn a men to
death penalty without any rights appeal”.
 Dictatorship – During the world war II Hitler and Mussolini are the two major authorities who
controlled the press in Germany and Italy. Press was under the control of the authority and
No press can’t question against or publish against these two dictators.
 Few countries blocked wiki leaks website from its country to maintain the internal security
because the wiki leaks are not ready to compromise with government censorship a